My Birthday Dinner

Happy Birthday to ME! Last night I got to celebrate my birthday with all my wonderful friends and it was so much fun! We went to Pancho's Burritos in New Milford which turned out to be the perfect location. Thanks to all my fabulous friends who planned/organized the whole thing ...

Nicole picked me up and we got to the restaurant a little bit early to make sure they had our table ready ... it's a very small restaurant and we needed to seat 10 people, plus a baby :) Nicole and I stood at the bar while they got our table ready and I had to take a picture of her beautiful Strawberry margarita! Get ready for a LOT of pictures, since I combined the pics from my camera, Nicole's and Jen's!

Amanda, Nicole and Jen

My adorable cousin Sara made the schlep from Brooklyn to New Jersey just for the occasion ~ it was great to see her and introduce her to all of my friends!

Sandy, Amanda, Maribel

Christie and Meredith

Christie, Meredith, Erin, Sandy, Sara, Amanda

Diane and 3 week old Erin

Doesn't Diane look beautiful?

Jen looks like she's ready for another baby!

Nicole, Erin and Diane (with the red glow from the lighting)

Sandy, Sara, Amanda and Maribel

Erin, Diane, Jen, Christie & Meredith

Meredith ran 12 miles that morning because she's training for an upcoming half-marathon ... she ordered a burrito and we all laughed at how huge it was! Despite having burned thousands of calories that morning, she only ate a small portion of it :)

This isn't the best picture of Erin, but I had to post something about her since she was such a good sport ... she's my only single friend, so she had to endure an evening of conversations that revolved around children, motherhood, and marriage! We hope we didn't scare her away :)

They brought me a big slice of chocolate cake with strawberries and everyone sang Happy Birthday to me

As you can see, I had a great time!

The group shot (poor Erin got the brunt of the flash!)

THANKS to everyone for coming!! It was the perfect ending to a wonderful day!

TPG Family Night!

Nicole and Chris Heid were nice enough to host a get-together for everyone who's been involved in TPG (Toddler Play Group). We all brought our kids and our husbands and had a wonderful evening!

Jen, Amanda, Nicole, Audra, Julie, Meredith, Maribel and Sandy

(Corin was supposed to come, but had to cancel last minute and Mary recently moved back to Boston ... we missed them!)

Nicole and Avery

Jen and Sawyer

Harry and Dan (Jen's other half)

Timmy ~ I love this picture of his gorgeous eyes!

Cute little Taylor ... I feel horrible that I didn't get any pictures of Julie and Jon, Taylor's parents!

Reagan

Sandy and Julia (sorry Sandy - no pictures of Tom and Jack!)

Dancing to the music: Mia, Reagan and Timmy

Meredith and Quinn

Grace, Timmy, Bennett, Mia, Taylor and Quinn

Grace and Avery

Bennett and Nicole

John and Marcelo

Audra, Amanda, Meredith and Nicole

Joaquin and Maribel

Chris and Avery

Nicole and Mia

Nicole and Amanda

Reagan and Mia

I can't believe I didn't get a picture of the spread ... everyone brought either an appetizer or a dessert and the food was AWESOME! Chris and Nicole made all kinds of yummy food too (crab cakes, pulled pork sliders, chicken fingers, meatballs, hummus, etc.). The food was delicious and the company was even better. I tried to post pictures of everyone who was there, but I failed to get pictures of most of the husbands (Kevin, Tom, Jon and Massimo - sorry guys!). We hope to have another TPG Family Night this spring, since it was such a huge success. Thanks for having us Nicole and Chris!!

Playgroup Halloween Luncheon at Nicole's

Halloween turned out to be a fun, but exhausting day! I started out the morning with Reagan refusing to put on her Jessie costume because she wanted to be Super Girl again. Whatever - it wasn't worth the fight, you know? I just found it funny that she made such a big deal out of wanting to be Jessie for the last couple months, then I pulled out last year's Super Girl costume at the last minute yesterday and it turned into the big hit! I'm sure this is just a taste of all the last minute decision changes that are to come in the future ~ inevitable with raising girls.

I took Reagan to preschool, then took Avery over to Nicole's for the playgroup Halloween party.

Here are Sandy's kids, Julia and Jack, both monsters - so cute!

"What am I doing in this silly costume??"

Such a big girl!

Meredith couldn't come to Nicole's this morning, but she sent me this picture from tonight and I just had to post it. Quinn and Avery are 6 1/2 weeks apart and they both wore the same costume today. We never got them together to get a picture of both in their costumes, but we might have to stage one at a later date!

Avery just had to touch Max's binkie

I stayed for about a half hour, then had to leave to pick up Reagan ... Avery was in need of a nap, so I figured she'd fall asleep in the car ride to Ms. Lisa's. Sure enough, she didn't fall asleep until we were 2 blocks from Ms. Lisa's, then woke up as soon as I stopped the car.

When I arrived, I couldn't see Reagan and I figured she was inside ... then I realized she was wearing a pink princess gown instead of her Super Girl costume. Because Ms. Lisa has a daughter who loves to dress up (Nicole), she has a large collection of dress-up clothes, which Reagan loves to help herself to. Don't you love the red boots with the pink dress? Before I put her in the car, I had to take off the princess dress, then put the Super Girl costume back on her.

We drove to Nicole's and Avery finally fell asleep again just before we arrived. Right around the same time, Reagan started saying something about "not liking to throw-up." She seemed absolutely fine when I picked her up and she was very happy on the drive to Nicole's. Then as soon as I parked the car, she told me she was going to throw up. So I rushed out of my seat, ran around to the other side of the car, opened the door and tried to get her out of her carseat ... but I was too slow. Just as I was unbuckling her, she threw up. All over her Super Girl costume. And my hands. And the car seat. Lovely.

I got her out of the car and started stripping the costume off of her, all while she was crying and saying, "I don't like throwing up!" Once I got the costume off, I asked if she wanted to go home. She looked at me like I was crazy - how could she miss the Halloween party? It was like flipping a light switch - one minute she was sick and the next minute she was extremely happy, ready to play with her friends! I guess she must have gotten car sick? That happened one other time when we were in Utah, on our way to Moon Lake ... but I figured that was due to the high altitude. I have no idea what happened today, but she was absolutely fine the rest of the day.

We went inside and Nicole was nice enough to give her some of Mia's clothes to wear, as well as a "princess" costume.

When we got back to the party, they were making the kids into mummies, using toilet paper.

Maribel & Joaquin ~ Maria and Max

William and Mary ~ Sandy and Julia

Nicole made up a fun craft for the kids to do

Everyone brought something to contribute to the pot-luck lunch and we all just kept munching. It was a wonderful party and Nicole was the perfect hostess. Thanks for having us over!